PLEASE NOTE: Application deadline date 08 Jan 2024. Applications are no longer being accepted for this project
Project Overview
Future hazards from sea ice keels pose a threat to planned subsea cables routes in the Arctic and Antarctica. This project will use high-resolution ocean and subsea models and observations to understand and assess this threat. It will deliver a risk-assessment model demonstrator for trials by industry stakeholders.
Project Description
A network of >1.4 million km of subsea cables carries>99% of global data traffic, including the internet (Clare et al., 2023). Satellite coverage and mobile networks are sparse in Polar regions; hence subsea cables are crucial for the communities that live there. The loss of marine ice cover due to climate change opens opportunities for new cable routes. Trans-Arctic Ocean and the first Antarctica to Australia and New Zealand subsea cables are planned. However, ice-related hazards in these high latitude regions pose a potential threat to subsea cables, particularly gouging by sea ice (Strub-Klein and Sudom, 2012). Thinning of sea ice makes it more mobile and compressible; and ice keels can cut deep below the seabed, damaging cables that were buried for their protection (https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/arctic-sea-ice-cuts-subsea-ca...).
The project tackles this emerging issue, addressing hazards for subsea cables in the present and near-future. The project uses state-of-the-art 1-km European NEMO (Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean) ocean-sea ice model and satellite data to examine risks for cables from seabed gouging by sea ice. The student will develop models for sea ice – sediments interactions and risk assessments for subsea telecommunications. The project will address the following questions:
- How has sea ice changed in response to climate change?
- How will sea ice change in future and how and where will the seafloor be impacted by ice gouging?
- Where are the existing and future hazard hotspots for subsea cables?
- What mitigation measures can be implemented to increase future resilience?
The INSPIRE DTP programme provides comprehensive personal and professional development training alongside extensive opportunities for students to expand their multi-disciplinary outlook through interactions with a wide network of academic, research and industrial/policy partners. The student will be registered at the University of Southampton and hosted at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton. Specific training will
include:
- setting up, running and analysing ocean-sea ice models on the UK High Performing Computing
- analysis of IPCC climate projections
- learning high level computing languages: Fortran, Python
- learning to use observations on sea ice, ocean and sediments
- participation in research cruises to collect data and to learn ocean observing techniques.
The student will carry on research across the fundamental and applied science and will join Marine Systems Modelling (MSM) and Ocean BioGeoscience (OBG) Groups of the National Oceanography Centre (NOC). Engagement with industrial stakeholders will help building professional networking.
- Clare, M. A., Yeo, I. A., Bricheno, L., Aksenov, Y., Brown, J., Haigh, I. D., et al. (2022). Climate change hotspots and implications for the global subsea telecommunications network. Earth-Science Reviews, p.104296, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2022.104296.
- Dupont, F., Dumont, D., Lemieux, J.F., Dumas-Lefebvre, E. and Caya, A., 2022. A probabilistic seabed–ice keel interaction model. The Cryosphere, 16(5), pp.1963-1977, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1963-2022.
- Strub-Klein, L. and Sudom, D., (2012). A comprehensive analysis of the morphology of first-year sea ice ridges. Cold Regions Science and Technology, 82, pp.94-109, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coldregions.2012.05.014.
